| The Maltese Mallard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | W. Scott Pattullo |
| Date | September 2023 |
| Media | Ink on paper, digital work |
The Maltese Mallard is 2023 mixed media Disney fan art by W. Scott Pattullo. It's a spoof of the classic film noir The Maltese Falcon.
History[]
Scott completed the piece on September 22, 2023. He uploaded it to his DeviantART page the same day. It was done as an entry in a contest on DeviantART. A few days earlier, on the 17th, he posted a "sneak peek" pencil sketch of Minnie Mouse on his Patreon. Then, on October 1, the full pencil sketch was uploaded to his Patreon.
Subject and title[]
This is an entry in the "Black and White Movie Challenge" contest in the Disney-club at DeviantART. The purpose of the contest was to recreate an image from a black and white film but replaced with Disney characters. Following is the description Scott listed on the artwork's DeviantART page:
This is "The Maltese Mallard". Based on one of my all-time favorite films "The Maltese Falcon", starring one of my favorite actors Humphrey Bogart. The Maltese Falcon is the ultimate film noir (in other words, a crime drama). Bogart plays Detective Sam Spade, Mary Astor is Miss O'Shaughnessy, the legendary Peter Lorre plays Joel Cairo, and Sydney Greenstreet plays Kasper Gutman a.k.a. "The Fat Man".
Here, I've obviously replaced Bogie with Mickey, Mary Astor with Minnie, Peter Lorre with Goofy, and Sydney Greenstreet with Pete. Making Pete the "fat man" villain was pretty much a no-brainer. Pete is both fat and a villain. Then there's Donald Duck. I changed the falcon to a different bird: a mallard. There's the duck connection. I've depicted the final climactic scene in the movie when the falcon statuette is finally revealed.
Their clothes are sort of an amalgam of their regular Disney character designs and the film wardrobe. I kept Minnie's dress, shoes and large bow, but I added the ruffle to the front of the dress, like Mary Astor from the film. I gave Goofy the similar thing (with bow tie) that Peter Lorre wore in the film, but I also kept Goofy's signature turtleneck. I have Pete wearing something similar to what he wore in Goof Troop. I think it works for this. Then Mickey is in a 1940's suit like Bogie wears.
Media[]
Scott started out with a pencil drawing, then inked the final line work. He then scanned the drawing to work on it digitally.